This article
Based on work by DC and frontalot.
Originally by frontalot.
at Linkstationwiki.org

An easier method

You don't need to do any of the following if you run the firmware updater (Recover a non working "bricked" Linkstation) it will automatically create the necessary partitions. When you boot the LS up for the first time, the disk full LED will flash, this is the LS creating the partitions, wait until the flashing stops, then run the firmware update (you may need to run it twice as the first may fail). The following instructions are intended for people who wish to preserve their existing data.

1. Start by making a backup of your existing hard drive. See Articles/GeneralBackup for instructions on how to perform a backup.

2. Download a Knoppix bootable Linux CD (see Knoppix or possibly Damn Small Linux(not tried)), place the new hard drive in a workstation, and boot using the Knoppix CD.

3. Now you need to partition the hard drive according to your needs (replacing "x" with whatever letter you have installed the hard drive as):

fdisk /dev/hdx

4. The standard LinkStation setup uses 3 partitions, hda1 (main ~ 400MB), hda2 (swap ~ 300MB), and hda3 (mount ~ remaining). If you want a larger main partition you should do so at this time. Restore your backup:

dd if=/mnt/whatever/hda1.bin of=/dev/hda1

5. You must run fix_ext2_magic, check for errors, and resize the backup image if you created a larger main partition:

./fix_ext2_magic --fix /dev/hdx1
e2fsck /dev/hdx1
resize2fs /dev/hdx1

6. You may have to use the force option (-f) if resize2fs complains about not running e2fsck. Next create the ext2 filesystem and swap partition. You can turn off drive checking since we are using ext2 with journaling:

mke2fs -j /dev/hdx3
tune2fs -c0 -i0 /dev/hdx2
mkswap /dev/hdx2

7. Place the hard drive in the LinkStation and reboot. Be patient as the first boot may take longer than normal.